#i tried to listen to ateez to skz to the boyz but they all sound the same and by the same i mean real bad

[gayhoguns]

why are boygroup songs so bad nowadays 😭 back in my day we had class he had finesse we had exo and shinee and winner i guess and even early bts when they were still on their r&b + hip hop era... and now all we have is pots and pans clanking together and sticker

[sleepyowlsleeps]

Sleepy’s Favorite K-Pop Songs of 2020

1. Any Song - Zico -- this song is not particularly special, but the main vibe, “play any song that makes you happy” is exactly how my musical tastes were in 2020, for the regular reasons we all faced AND for some extra, personal reasons that made me search out happier or deceptively happy songs, or songs that lay next to me instead of crawling under my skin. I usually love when a song sings my soul back to me, but there were many moments last year that I just couldn’t handle that, or couldn’t handle it the same way I usually would. Spotify says that Any Song was played the most of, well, any song, and I know why.

2. Midnight Train - Se So Neon -- this is a song that lay beside me, from the first time I heard it and every time after. It actually doesn’t have a ton of lyrics, but the ones it has are vibrating with intention and casual pain. There is ice on the tip of your tongue but it mellows as the guitar takes you out with the tide. Sometimes the melody is clashing so hard against your teeth you’re worried it’ll just swallow you whole, but instead it falls like a heavy rain, washing everything clean. Please, please listen to this song.

3. Scream - Dreamcatcher -- they have never released a bad song, and I actually love their entire discography. It’s one of the few that I do listen to just by itself, no other artists. Dreamcatcher have never been afraid to be brash and in your face, nor do they shy away from saying how it is. There is an open wound inside this song, and your heartbeat is so loud in your ears. The lyrics are intense, the instrumentals are intense, the performances in the vocals are fire and wine and steel. I love it.

4. Can’t You See Me? - TXT -- I really loved Run Away in 2019, which for a debut year was jam packed with content. TXT has this wonderful take on youth and maturity and being real about your emotions. Their voices are soft and sweet, even while this song is talking about the disparity between reality and dreams, truth and lies. Every part of the song captures my attention, I don’t think it has any weak points, and I always picture the MV. Strawberries will never be the same. This song did sing my soul to me a little, but even though the sound was visceral it never cut through bone. It was gentle and kind, and held my hand.

5. Close - Han (Stray Kids) -- I did not expect that this little song would end up meaning so much to me, but it did. Stray Kids had an amazing year as always, but I guess my love for Han’s singing and his lyricism just got me. Han has a way of just pulling back all the weeds surrounding my feelings, but not tugging them straight out. He’s patient with the dandelions and doesn’t insist on clarity right away. This song got closer and closer to me the more I listened to it, until it was stuck in my head and I was never mad about it. There are blue skies and sunshine and someone is waiting for me, ready to smile when I turn around.

6. Back Door - Stray Kids -- the production behind SKZ’s music does continually get better, but I think the more appropriate term is “expands.” Their sound remains largely the same, while each new release tries something new, echoes the old, and continues to push the same message they’ve had since the beginning: inclusivity. Stray Kids is here for you, to welcome you into the club and to have a good time with you while we talk about the struggles we’re all facing. I haven’t yet gotten sick of this song, it goes by in a flash and for once, I don’t have a favorite part, or a section that gets stuck in my head more than others. It’s the whole package for me.

7. Kick It - NCT 127 -- NCT makes a lot of very clean, very specific sounding sounds that I don’t really care for. I have a few favorites, and actually really love the whole of the debut album, but I don’t go out of my way to listen to their music. Kick It, though, was just so much fun, it had sharp edges and and a smooth underbelly. Haechan sounds the best, I love his voice SO MUCH, but everyone sounds good. I like the unison parts, the repeat mantras, the bombastic way the lyrics aren’t really saying a lot but are so enthusiastic that you don’t care.

8. eight - IU, SUGA -- IU just continues to evolve and make music that is really, really good. None of her songs are overly complex or visionary, but they are friendly and relevant, and sit outside your door with brownies and lemonade. IU’s voice can do soft, can do poignant, can do intense, depending on her mood. She is a singer of extraordinary caliber and I love seeing everything she does next. eight was a simple but beautiful song that plays into your nostalgia without sugar-coating everything, and at the same time there’s such a lightness too it. It’s a short song and SUGA’s rap was such an unexpected addition that actually worked really well. 

9. So What - LOONA -- this is a song deserving of a much higher spot, but I think I just wasn’t quite as ready for LOONA’s next evolution as others’. Still, this song is so good, with potentially the best bridge of the entire year. Everyone sounds so good, the song hypes you up and never lets you down. Even though the concept is one we’ve seen before, LOONA never makes anything sound the same. There is no compromise, there is only awesomeness.

10. ON - BTS -- I went around in circles contemplating how much I did or didn’t like this song. BTS is going places with their music that I don’t love as much as their stuff from, say 2016-18, but they are still incredible artists and performers. And ignoring all the rest, all the talk, just focusing on the song itself, it’s really good. It’s really, really good and the kind of song that I unapologetically sing really loudly in the car. There are quieter parts that acknowledge how exhausting it is to keep moving forward when you’re in pain, strong, jagged tantrums that demand that the pain try harder to keep you down, spaces to breath and places to run. This is a song that says we’re going through a battle and it’s hard, but we can see that there is an end, there is hope, and nothing will keep us down. Even through pain and tears, we can go on. 

And now things get a little funky because I had a lot of favorites:

11. Tiger Eyes - Ryu Su Jeong Girls - Nature Villain - Stella Jang Boca - Dreamcatcher Left & Right - Seventeen

12. Come Back Home - ONEUS Summer Breeze - SF9 Apple - GFriend Bon Voyage - YooA pporappippam - Sunmi

13. Me Time - Yubin Easy - Stray Kids Favorite Boys - A.C.E Think of Dawn - Ghost9 The Stealer - The Boyz

14. One - Golden Child Alien - Lee Suhyun A Song Written Easily - ONEUS La Di Da - Everglow Blue Hour - TXT

15. Breath - GOT7 Hands Up - Cherry Bullet Answer/Inception - ATEEZ 90′s Love - NCT U End of Spring - ONEWE

[bellaloona]

Ramble-y Kingdom: Legendary War Episode 1 Thoughts

Instead of refilling my queue, enjoy my rambly opinions on this show, whoooo

Side note: Whereas with RTK two of my ult groups were there (Pentagon and ONF), none of the Kingdom participants are groups in particularly passionate about. I casually listen to them all and know the members but I don’t think I have a bias this time around. So I might have opinions that might seem a little harsh?

Performances, from my personal 6->1:

6. ATEEZ - I feel like the odds were stacked against them since the criteria for song choice narrowed down their options to Wave, Inception, and Firework, none of which I think represent them as a group (Pirate King, Wonderland, or HALA HALA would have been good but weren’t eligible). Wave is an upbeat, fun song and turning into a dark one just seemed really odd to me, esp when Hongjoong said “Hakuna Matata” and then started bleeding at the beginning, like where is the connection??? But ATEEZ always, ALWAYS puts 110% effort into their performances and I felt it here. They tried their best to sell it, looked great, sounded great, danced great, but it just wasn’t clicking for me.

5. SF9 - Played it safe with the concept but where amazingly synchronized and stable the whole time. Good Guy was a pretty good pick and represented their image well. I feel like for 100 seconds you shouldn’t use a bunch of that time to stand and walk just to look cool. Also Good Guy was never a song that stood out to me but again, their options were limited like ATEEZ’s was. (btw I’m praying for an easy love performance during this show PLEASE)

4. The Boyz - this opinion is spicy I know since they’ve got a lot of fans and I’m sure they ranked high but I don’t think this performance was anything particularly exciting or new from them. They killed it as always and I love their references to RTK that they sprinkled in there. Sunwoo continues to be insanely charismatic and talented. I’ve heard that their performance was like this to continue the storyline from RTK so at least I understand why they didn’t do anything too crazy yet. Juyeon’s jump genuinely scared me. I feel like the arrangement for The Stealer could have been better? Love the floor choreo!

3. BTOB - Only they could pull off a performance like this with like half their group missing. They all look and sound fantastic, and I love hearing Minhyuk sing! The choir was a nice touch and the harmonies are great. My only critique about this is that I wasn’t particularly surprised by this performance bc I knew they could do all this already so I’ll look forward to the rest of the show to see what else they can do.

2. Stray Kids - For the RTK/Queen/Kingdom franchise, a performance like this isn’t anything too surprising but I felt like for SKZ in particular, I’ve never seen them do something this flashy and cool! They already do amazing things at concerts but knew for kingdom they’d have to crank it up another level so they brought out the acrobatics and fireworks and for a song like Miroh it was PERFECT. Felix sounded godly in the beginning and the rap lead up to the chorus always slaps.

1. IKON - Are they in first bc of the vibes only? Perhaps. I’m really happy to see them even if rhythm ta is performed so many times on mnet shows I’m tired of it. But its IKON and their energy is so fun and contagious. No props, nco flashy acrobatics, no explosions or anything too crazy. Instead they brought it back to debut era and gave us a solid dance performance. Feels like they were the only group that fully understood the memo of this being an INTRO performance. This was an intro to IKON through and through. My only critique is that I wish the vocals were live but Bobby’s smile is so cute that I’ll look over it.

Overall, I'm excited about the show and every group has a great jumping off point for future performances. I'm looking forward to seeing the groups cover other groups! TVXQ (or err....just Changmin now) is doing a pretty decent job as MC even if I miss Jang Sungkyu.

My personal wish is for some fun upbeat performances on this show and not for all of the performance to be super dark and masculine. Can TBZ perform Bloom Bloom or BTOB perform WOW please? I hope the groups get to have fun in their performances and it isn't all acrobatics and props and fire and shirtlessness.